In my poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence published in 1896; the poet uses word choice, hyperbole, and metonymy to show that humans hide there emotions. Laurence uses word choice in the first stanza: "grins and lies" (line one), "hides... shades" (line two), "dept" (line three), "myriad" (line five); these are all negative words that show something is being hidden from the public helping one to understand the meaning of the poem. the second stanza has word choice in line seven "tears and sighs" to show the pain and aggravation that people try to hide from themselves and others. the last stanza has several more examples of this negative word choice that explains how miserable people are through the long struggle of life. Stanza one line four "with torn and bleeding hearts we smile" this hyperbole shows who much pain we are in although we tend not to show it; our hearts are obviously not torn nor bleeding its just to show the pain we are in. Stanza two line seven "in counting all our tears and sighs?" this is a hyperbole because no one will ever count all our tears and sighs, which is the point of this poem; why should we care? Why should we worry about others and why should others worry about us? And why show that we are in fact hurting if no one cares? In my experience this is somewhat true. By this i mean we care when its necessary or obvious someone we care about is hurting. if its not someone we are close to though it tends to not matter to us although humans are instinctively curious our nature is to not act of it and stay away from anything new or different in the most part. People hide what they are feeling to also convince themselves they are happy not just everyone else. Think about it can you imagine if everyone always showed how they felt and let it consume they instead of acting happy; they would never get the chance to be happy even if only for a second.
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May 2015
AuthorsFocused, determined, and a whole lot sassy: Mrs. Costisick's AP Literature students want you to delve into the ostentatious world of poetry with them as they augment their own understanding of some of the most famous writings known to us. No Dr. Seuss here. Categories |